A. Field
This invention relates generally to the field of wireless telephones and more particularly to wireless telephones incorporating one or more keys which take the form of a programmable display. The display is constructed such that it may display image files. Such image files may include photographs either captured locally by a camera included in the phone or image files sent to the phone over a network connection.
B. Related Art
Wireless telephone manufacturers and service providers have developed relatively simple to use wireless telephones, with a minimum of buttons. These phones include the “Jitterbug OneTouch” phone, described at www.jitterbug.com/phones.aspx. The Jitterbug phone includes three speed dial buttons, one of which can selected at the factory to dial read either “friend”, “home”, “tow”, “work” or “my phone”. The other two buttons read “operator” and “911”.
Another phone is the LG Migo phone from Verizon Wireless, which is designed to be used by kids between 8 and 12 years of age. A description of the LG Migo phone can be found online. The LG Migo phone includes four speed dial buttons labeled “1”, “2”, “3” and “4” which can be programmed to dial four different numbers.
Other relevant art related to this invention includes Kim, US Patent Publication 2002/0149568 and Acevedo, U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,361. These references describe computer keyboards in which the individual keys include display capabilities. A story about these new keyboards was published on Sep. 19, 2005, see “World's First keyboard with LCD Keys”, by Geoff Richards, available online.
This invention provides for a novel wireless telephone and method of operation which provides for improved usability of a wireless telephone using keys which include a programmable display for displaying image files, e.g., photographs.